The attack was sudden, violent, and nearly ripped the small balcony off of it's rigging as multiple sniper bolts landed around Chancellor Tinto, Field Marshall, and Grand Admiral Nelson. They would have hit each one of them somewhere on the chest had it not been for the barrier that Tinto had effortlessly put up to shield them the moment he felt a disturbance.
The assassin with the blade that popped out from the curtain swiftly lost his head when Nelson out of instinct let loose a punch and didn't hold back. The sickening crack of his neck being shattered and then severed in one swift motion was heard throughout the crowd courtesy of the microphones that hadn't been shut off yet.
The last thing the assassin saw was Nelson's scared face scowling at him.
"Shit!" the sniper barked as he backed off, ditching the rifle and running as he heard the familiar buzz of a Republic Gunship closing in. He started to panic slightly when that buzz was joined by many others. It was a worst case scenario really, each LAAT/i would be carrying a minimum of 5 heavily armed and armored Capitol Marines and could easily outrun the man if he didn't make it to the speeder he had hidden in time.
A shadow passed over him before an explosion rang out half a football field away.
"They got my ride..." he thought grimly, stopping in his tracks and pulling out his weapons of choice from his hips. Seconds later, he could feel the boots of the soldiers hitting the rooftop around him. These must be those power armored soldiers he had heard so much about from the Doctor.
30 marines, 10 of them in powered armor, surrounded the sniper with rifles, pistols, and even a heavy repeater raised.
"Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air or we will terminate you." a flat, electronically filtered voice barked out.
"You won't castrate me like you did my people you bastards!" Koldo spat back before activating the lightsaber hilts in his hand. Each blade was a dark violet, the original colors of the Lumarian Republic before they agreed to be annexed.
"Lumaria shall be free!"
He charged the nearest soldier as they all opened up. He silently thanked Vorla for the cranial stim-pack he installed before they were sent to Aurek. It helped him ignore the three blaster bolts that impacted him in the back before he got within lightsaber range of his target; one of those power armor bastards.
Before he could swing, the lead man in armor, nearly 8 feet in height thanks to what he was wearing, grabbed the man's arm and ripped it off. As the second saber swung at his arm, his fist made contact with the terrorists face, turning his head into mush before the body even hit the ground.
"Clear." the leader said, wiping the red off of his shoulder insignia. "Everyone back on your transports; Echo team you have cleanup duty of this dirtbag."
"Aye, sir." one of the marines in regular armor replied as Gunnery Sergeant Jones turned back towards his gunship and lumbered forward. The humanoid gave a grin as he sent the data gathered from this short field test back to the boys in R&D, replaying the events that had just transpired on his HUD just to make sure that he really had managed to pull that off.
"You alright, Sarge?" one of his squad asked, to which Jones gave a nod in reply as the LAAT/i began to climb again.
"Fine, just getting used to the armor."
"Serial Number 1?"
"Damn right it is."
"You have got to be kidding me." Jacobs murmured as he leaned back in his command chair.
"No joke, Lumarian 'freedom' fighters tried to take out the Nelsons and our new Chancellor." Torcille replied. "Needless to say it failed spectacularly."
"More of Vorla's men again or was this some other terror cell?"
"More of Vorla's boys. Methinks he's gotten all the other 'liberation' cells to answer to him, but that's just a rough guess."
"Well... at least it means if we take him out they lose their momentum... though is there another reason you called in?"
"Just getting a status update given your current role with how this war will turn out."
"Please don't remind me, Golt." Jacobs quipped with a grin. "Else I might be tempted to draw this out so my men get more 'honor' than Nelson's kiddos."
"Very funny, Howard, very funny." Torcille groaned, matching his old friend's grin. "I guess it's still going slow?"
"Unbearably so. I've had to fight off three bugger fleets coming to try and reinforce their boys on the ground since the Redemption began atmospheric operations... Park is pressing though. Would you believe his troops had to assault an actual beach in order to get a foothold?"
"Something like that hasn't been done since the Battle of Kashyyyk back during the Clone Wars... damn, shield generators?"
"Powerful ones."
"Damn... well, best of luck burc'ya." Torcille replied, giving his fellow admiral a respectful nod.
"Have fun wait-"
"Admiral, enemy contacts inbound again."
"Have fun waiting, Torcille, I have business to attend to. Jacobs out." he finished, cutting the feed and bringing up the tactical data on the main screen.
"Move us up to intercept and hold the corvettes back far enough to intercept gunships, transports, or anything else that could bring in support for the buggers." Jacobs ordered, "Get Green Squadron up front as well, I want them to double their kill marks by the end of the day."
A lone gunship flew over the Senth battlefield, unseen and casting no shadow courtesy of the stealth panels that Special Operations Transports all had. Inside, Lieutenant Het-Dai, his team, and dozen Crandolian prisoners stood or sat patiently as they got closer to the Redemption.
"If you're going to kill us at least do us the courtesy of shooting us in the head before dumping us out the sid-ow!" the Governor said before a rifle butt impacted the side of his face. Het-Dai turned to face him, his unforgiving black visor 'staring' the semi-insectoid official down.
"If our mission was to kill you, we would not be having this conversation... now shut up, or I'll have someone hit you hard enough to knock you out." the young officer growled. The Governor shut up quickly at that before 4 hit him on the back of the head with her rifle stock, knocking him out and flat on his face.
"Sorry, couldn't resist." she said, her playful tone betraying the lack of remorse in her apology.
"Eh, you know how it is..." Jeral replied, his tone equally informal, "Shut them up or shut'em off."
"Alright boys and girls, we're moving into town and then moving right past it straight to the next." Uyon stated, "Our target, courtesy of General Park himself, is to reach a power plant and secure it. Once the the rest of the division moves up with us, it'll be the epicenter of our forward ground base... needless to say, we need to get this right."
"Any armor moving up with us?" a private asked.
"Fire team leaders and myself all have target designator codes uploaded to their HUDs, we'll have air cover the entire way relying on us for strike zones and targets... uploading navigation ping to your radars... sync up mission clocks... Now. Alright, let's move!" he barked, looking at his men before turning around and starting forward down the road. Behind him, 87 men and 32 droids of various class moved in behind and around him as they left the curve of the road and started through the forest, guns training on anywhere a sniper or machine gun nest might be hiding.
A destroyer droid Mk. III proved that their fears were well rooted as a plasma bolt melted one of its armor panels before the sniper who took the shot was zeroed in on and fired upon.
"Target down, most likely a civilian." a sergeant reported.
"What makes you so sure?" one of the droids asked.
"No sniper worth their weight in credits would dare set up shop in a damn tree."
"All units break formation and fire at will. Reform in ten minutes unless ordered otherwise. Go!" Jacobs barked as the Iron Will banked to the side and unleashed a devastating broadside barrage. Ion blasts, turbolaser bolts, concussions missiles, and mass driver shells all arched towards the Crandolian fleet, causing a dozen dropships and a trio of frigates to detonate before the rest of the Fifth Fleet scattered and engaged freely.
Explosions ripped silently through the space around Senth Site's southeastern hemisphere as frigates, cruiser, battleships, and even carriers moved into close range to engage their counterparts in either fleet.
Usually this was frowned upon as a tactic as targeting computers could get an accurate firing solution from nearly a light-year away, but the Fifth Fleet and the admiral in charge of it preferred to have his ships move as close as possible as to maximize damage output as well as making it difficult for enemy bombers to sneak in a crippling blow without the threat of being vaporized by friendly flak.
Jacobs was the only admiral who was able to successfully work the Close Combat Doctrine without exceedingly high losses and thus, was rather feared throughout the galaxy as someone you really didn't want to fight. Even Nelson preferred not to stand in his way when Jacobs was given an assignment; while Nelson's troops and ships had a reputation for being the best, Jacobs' had a reputation of not dying when they were supposed to.
That reputation extended to the ships of the Fifth Fleet courtesy of their heavier than standard armor. While the rest of the fleets relied on fighter superiority mixed with capital ship presence to secure orbit, The Fifth relied mostly on their big ships to get the job done. What few squadrons were active in orbit were veterans of the Lumarian War and Green had fought at Xesh; the rest only had experience from the Crandolian War and were busy keeping the boots on the ground from having to shoot into the sky.
"Shields down." Horizon announced.
"Let them eat durasteel plating." Jacobs replied with a feral grin. "Now it's a real fight! All ahead full and increase firepower!"
"Aye sir!" the helmsman and weapons officer called back together. Everyone aboard felt the Iron Will surge forward as missiles detonated and plasma dissipated almost harmlessly off her heavy armor. Everyone aboard felt tremors surge through the ship with each impact before a shockwave of an enemy capital ship detonating rocked the Eclipse flagship violently.
"Shield status?"
"Charging up, 60 percent, want me to deploy?" Horizon said.
"Wait for full charge before activating again. Weapons, buy us as much time as you can." Jacobs ordered.
"Aye, Admiral." the man at the weapons stationed replied. Moment later, a flurry of fire burst from the forward guns straight at a Crandolian battleship, causing her shields to flare violently, but still hold.
"Mass drivers on target, EMP shells are loaded." Horizon announced.
"Firing!" the weapons station chimed as he hit the command signal and the gunnery crews answered with lethal speed. Trails of dark orange screamed toward Iron Will's target and bypassed her shields, impacting the hull armor and in many cases, penetrating through armor, hull, and decks.
"Direct hit, teams are reloading."
"Bring us up next to her so that we can get a good broadside in, have the front weapons target that frigate behind her." Jacobs ordered once more before a squadron of heavily modified TIE Interceptors and X-Wings with green decals and fleet emblems flew past and banked into an enemy formation of bombers heading straight towards Jacob's ship.
Green Squadron banked into the bomber flight heading for the Iron Will lasers firing with deadly accuracy as Crandolian bombers detonated into clouds of plasma and debris. Those that made it through the head on attack were picked off by point defense guns on the Keldabe they were targeting with only one managing to get off a plasma missile that detonated harmlessly on the armor before a laser burst impacted the cockpit.
"Target the nearest carrier." the squadron leader barked, pulling his Interceptor 'up' towards the familiar bloated form of a Crandolian Heavy Carrier that was already trailing smoke.
Perfect target.
"I don't care what you think the limitations of your men are, you keep scouring the systems until you find it." Abyss growled at an admiral bowing in front of him.
"Of course, majesty." the man in front of him whimpered as he backed out the main doors, holding the bow the entire time.
"They've been scouting for months." Ilea finally commented once it was just her, Abyss, and the guards in the throne room. "Are you sure the drift calculations are correct?"
"Admiral Yujklov did the calculations himself..." Abyss murmured, his tone rather bored given the subject matter, "If he's looking in the wrong systems, then that's his problem and he'll pay for it."
"I'm surprised you haven't killed him by now to be honest."
"Only if he doesn't find it within another month or two... or if he finds The Cipher and damages it. If he does that I'll be killing his entire family and then him."
"I just hope they find it before you need it."
"He has a month before the Eclipse launches its final assault right into the trap."
"May I still go on record as not being all too happy that you're trap could cost us Crandolia?"
"You can protest all you want but it won't change my decision or its tactical necessity."
"And all because of dumb luck." Ilea groaned. "How is our favorite enemy doing anyway?"
"Nelson and his mate are growing stronger by the day and with any luck they'll be Class D by the time we use the Cipher."
"That's not a lot to use, Abyss."
"It'll be enough, Ilea... it will be enough."
"Are you alright, sir?" a protocol droid asked Chancellor Tinto before being waved away.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Someone get me the soldier in charge of the counter strike and footage of how the hell two assassins were able to put my best commanders in danger." he ordered, his tone surprisingly clam yet with an underlying sternness that made even Ed do a mental double-take and barely notice one of the orderlies let out a frantic 'yes sir!'
"We're perfectly fine, Kyle." Hannah said once the room was clear, or at least as clear as it could get with the extra guards now lining the walls and doorways.
"Yes you are, you both always are. The only issue is that you two seem to always attract trouble and I'd rather not have the entire war effort brought to a screeching halt because the Supreme Commander of the Navy or Army got a blade between the ribs."
"Or a lightsaber to the neck." Nelson replied with a smirk before Hannah nudged him in the ribs.
"Keep up the jokes for too long and that might be my lightsaber, Admiral." Tinto quipped, matching his smirk before the holotable in the middle of his office exploded and he was flung out the main window behind him.